


Could This Be the Moment

by jacksparrow589



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Almost Kiss, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Held Gaze, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, gratuitous fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-23 20:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21326548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacksparrow589/pseuds/jacksparrow589
Summary: Anne is making a cake in preparation for the students receiving their Queen's exam results when she has an unexpected but not unwelcome visitor with unexpected but not unwelcome news. Makes vague reference to 3x07.EDIT: Now with a second (and truly final) chapter!
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 30
Kudos: 438





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written on and posted from mobile. If you see mistakes, please please please let me know!

"Mind if I join you?"

Anne looked up from her cake making. Gilbert was at the door but he hadn't come in, which seemed unusual.

"Of course. Come in." Anne wiped her hands on her apron.

Gilbert came in and sat down, looking particularly thoughtful. Anne worked in silence for a few minutes, but it was quickly becoming too much. "Is... everything okay?" She shook her head. "I'm sorry; it's clearly not. What happened?"

Gilbert looked around, then heaved a sigh. "I, ah, let Winifred and her parents know my intention. Specifically, that I do _not_ intend to court her. I apologized for wasting her time and she says everything is fine, and she never took it seriously anyway..." He shook his head. "I made such a mess of it from the start. I was in over my head."

Anne wasn't sure what to say. "I'm sorry. I don't... know what you're going through exactly, but..." Anne sighed and shook her head again. "I don't know. I'm sorry that it's troubling you, though."

Gilbert let out a breathy chuckle. "It's not as troubling as you might think. Not this part of it, anyway. We really weren't at all well-suited..." He sniffed. "Is this Mary's cake recipe?"

Anne nodded. "Sans liniment this time, I might add." She grinned at Gilbert, who returned the smile briefly before frowning.

"I'm so sorry about the county fair."

"Wh-why should you be?" Anne wouldn't look him in the eye.

"I was insensitive. I should have realized that... That making this cake... You were crying about Mary when I came to borrow Matthew's cufflinks, weren't you?"

Anne nodded, both relieved and disappointed he hadn't addressed what she thought he was going to. "I was," she said quickly. "And I had a bit of a cold."

Gilbert relaxed back. "Ah. Explains the liniment, I suppose."

Anne sighed and rolled her eyes. "Marilla had put it in an old vanilla bottle and I couldn't smell it!"

Gilbert let out a true laugh. "That sounds about par for the course for you. Hey!" he cried as Anne flicked some flour at him.

"You worked on a steamship—you've had worse," Anne teased. When Gilbert gave her a look, she laughed again. "It doesn't work as well when you're covered in flour." She tossed him a towel.

Gilbert wiped the flour from his face and arms. "Takes one to know one. You've had cake batter on your chin this whole time." He stood and almost casually took Anne's chin in his hand and swiped his thumb through the batter smudged just a bit off-center.

Anne froze. "Gilbert?" His name came out in a shocked whisper. They were suddenly back on Miss Stacy's porch in the moonlight, with no walls between them, but now, there was no stunning Miss Rose, either. It was just them, staring into each other's eyes, far too close and yet leagues apart at the same time.

"Anne, I—"

There was a shout of laughter from outside that startled the two apart. Gilbert wiped his thumb off on the towel he still held before depositing it on the table. "Thanks for listening. I'd better go home. Bash is probably expecting me."

Anne took a couple of steady breaths as she licked her own thumb and cleaned the rest of the batter from her chin, and just as Gilbert reached the door... "Gilbert?" When he turned to look, Anne almost lost her nerve. "Anytime you need to talk. Anytime you _want_ to talk. I'm here."

Gilbert smiled softly. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Anne. I'll see you tomorrow."

Anne nodded and returned his smile. "Tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Yep, I basically just combined the bit where we all think Gil should have pointed out/wiped the paint off Anne's cheek, and the porch scene, but with less of a reason to stop. And I have no regrets. I'd do it again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, this went full-on fluffy, wholesome teen romance. You've been warned.
> 
> Takes place at my head-canoned results celebration and a little afterward.

Anne wished Diana could be here. She wished that they were both going to Queen’s, and that she’d never said those terrible things. She’d meant a few of them, but with a few weeks’ distance, she was able to acknowledge that Diana also had valid points, and that it had really been her execution that had been flawed.

“Sulking because we tied?” Gilbert teased as he sat down next to her. “Only surpassing me will do?”

Anne laughed softly. “Well, I know my baking is better than yours, so...”

“Point of order: you’ve never sampled my baking,” Gilbert pointed out.

“Because Bash eats it all, or because you both retch and toss it out?” Anne grinned. “I talk with him, too, you know.”

Gilbert pretended to look wounded, but couldn’t keep from smiling. “Liniment cake, Anne. That’s all I’m going to say.”

Anne gave him a withering stare. “Do you want lemonade dumped all over you? Because I can arrange that.”

“Can’t be worse than a slate to the head.”

“And you’d deserve it just as much.”

They both laughed, though Anne was blushing just a bit. She glanced over and realized Gilbert was very much giving her his undivided attention. “What? Do I have cake batter on my face again?” she joked, before remembering the other day.

“No, but you do have a little bit of icing.” Gilbert pointed discreetly to one corner of his lips.

Anne blinked. “You’re not serious!” She licked her lips and tasted a bit of sweetness at the corner of her mouth. “You could have mentioned earlier!” She scrubbed at the spot with her handkerchief.

_But I find it incredibly endearing when you’re not perfectly presentable,_ Gilbert wanted to tease, but this was not the right place or time. “I doubt anyone noticed, and if they did, they didn’t care.”

“_You_ cared enough to mention it.” Again, Anne realized she was saying too much. This was not the right place to drive at this. “U-um, I was wondering if… if you’d be willing to walk me home. Things seem to be wrapping up, and as we’re headed the same way...”

“Of course,” Gilbert replied with no hesitation. “We’ll help Miss Stacy clean up, and then we can be on our way, if that’s agreeable?”

Anne swallowed and nodded. “Sure.” She sprang to her feet, not sure whether she was more excited or more nervous, and wondering which Gilbert was.

* * *

They had strolled in companionable silence for a several minutes, close enough that Anne’s sleeve brushed against Gilbert’s shoulder every now and again.

“So… Queen’s...” Anne sighed.

Gilbert turned to her. “Really, the conversation we just had, and the one we almost had with it, _you_ inviting _me_ to walk you home, and you want to talk about _Queen’s_?”

Anne winced, but answered honestly. “Not really, no. I just… don’t know how to have the one I _do_ want to have.”

“Well, it generally starts with not avoiding the subject,” Gilbert told her.

“The subject we’ve both been avoiding since that dance practice?” Anne asked, her tone just a bit cutting.

Gilbert’s walk slowed to a shuffle. “I mean, I’ve been avoiding it since I got back to Avonlea.”

Anne stopped completely, the hand not carrying Marilla’s cake platter flying to her mouth. “You...” her voice shook. “That long?”

Gilbert had stopped as well, and was turned back to look at her. “Longer. Since the day I met you. But you were having none of me, so...” he shrugged.

“Gilbert...” Anne’s hands were shaking along with her voice. She felt ready to cry. She managed a giddy giggle even as tears formed. “I...” She took a breath and tried again. “I don’t know how to say it. I… What I feel for you… it’s not just friendly.” Another breath. Tears started rolling down her cheeks. “It took me so long to acknowledge that to myself, and by the time I had...”

“Here.” Gilbert took the cake platter and set it down on a nearby log before taking Anne’s hands and looking into her eyes. “I know. We’ve been ships in the night the last couple months. I just wasn’t sure about how you felt until that dance, and by then, well, that was the mess I was referring to yesterday.”

“So you didn’t break Miss Rose’s heart?” Anne asked teasingly, even through her tears.

Gilbert smiled ruefully. “No, but the talking-to she gave me about recognizing and acknowledging my own feelings so as to cause no further distress to delightful, spirited young ladies may have bruised my ego a bit.” His smile shifted to one of utter tenderness. “Anne, I have been gone for you since day one.” He squeezed her fingers.

Anne let out another laugh, as the tears kept rolling down her cheeks. “Sorry, these are joyful tears, I promise. I’m just an idiot.”

“Says the girl tied for first in the Queen’s exam scores.”

“Exam scores aren’t everything,” Anne reminded him. “No exam could have told me that I’d meet a wonderful, amazing, infuriating boy who would get on every last nerve of mine, match me measure for measure academically, and at the same time, manage to win me over, and no exam could have told me how to handle that.”

She lifted her wrist to dash her tears away with her sleeves. Gilbert let go of one of her hands and brushed them away for her. Instead of taking her hand again, however, he slid his hand down to Anne’s chin and tipped it up gently until their eyes met.

“Anne...”

“Gilbert...”

Anne took a half-step closer. They were only inches apart.

Gilbert closed the distance between them and pressed his lips to Anne’s softly at first. He pulled back just a bit, but Anne, already very much caught by the moment, made to follow. Gilbert stepped closer, letting go of Anne’s other hand and wrapping that arm around her waist, while Anne clasped her hands behind his neck as her lips met Gilbert’s again and again.

When they finally broke apart, they both needed a moment to catch their breath.

Gilbert looked to the sky. “I’m _so_ glad we have two years together at Queen’s after this. We can at least exchange letters so that we have stimulating conversation and witty banter, but giving _this_ up after only just discovering it? That might just do me in.”

Anne laughed disbelievingly, but agreed, “You’re not wrong.” She looked around. “We should probably keep heading back, though. Much as I’d love to keep this up until dark, we’d have Marilla to contend with, let alone anyone else who comes up the path.”

Gilbert grimaced. “Wouldn’t that just be the talk of Avonlea. I’ll settle for dealing with Bash and Marilla and Matthew for now.” He held out his arm as Anne went to go get the cake platter.

Anne raised her eyebrows as she took his arm and they set off. “You _want_ to tell them?”

He shrugged. “It’s only proper. And really, I’d like to show them my intentions are honorable.”

Anne snorted. “I’m not sure you know how to be anything else.”

Gilbert decided to let that one lie. It wasn’t that he wanted to be _dishonorable_, per se, but given the chance, he’d happily steal as many moments like the one they’d just shared as Anne would allow, though if this moment had been anything to go by, he had the distinct impression she'd be more than happy to oblige.

* * *

All too soon, they were approaching the treeline beyond which Green Gables and the Blythe-Lacroix farm were situated.

It was Anne who stopped and let out a sigh. At Gilbert’s quizzical look, she explained, “I’m not nervous. Well, not much. I’m just… regretting not making that walk last a little longer.”

“Let’s fix that, shall we?” Gilbert pulled Anne off the path, making her laugh until he stopped her with a kiss.

Anne sighed against him and leaned into the kiss entirely willingly, pulling back only when she needed air. She was leaned against Gilbert, who was leaning back against a tree and looking incredibly content. “Something tells me you wanted me to ask.”

Gilbert shrugged with one shoulder. “I would have asked eventually, though I’m not going to lie: it’s nice to know it’s something you want just as much as I do.”

Anne’s face fell for just a moment as she remembered Josie. The girl’s future was looking bright, as she was headed to Queen’s herself, but it had been a hard road for her.

“Anne...” Gilbert said her name quietly.

She blinked and looked at him. “You drive me utterly mad sometimes,” she said carefully, “but I’m indescribably glad you are who you are, Gilbert Blythe.” She leaned up to give him a quick, chaste kiss.

Gilbert was looking at her more intently now, and it made her stomach flutter and her heart race. “That goes double for you, Anne Shirley-Cuthbert.” Instead of her lips, he lifted one of Anne’s hands and pressed a very light kiss to her fingers. “_Especially_ when it comes to driving me utterly mad.”

Anne rolled her eyes, but she laughed. “Come on, time to go beg permission.”

“The only permission I’m going to beg is _yours_,” Gilbert told her entirely sincerely as they entered the open grass and Green Gables came into view. “This is merely a courtesy visit to inform your guardians. If for some unfathomable reason they don’t like it, well...” He shrugged.

Anne had been looking at him admiringly, but now, she just giggled. “In that extremely unlikely case, I suspect I will be doing rather a lot of sneaking over the next few months.”

“I believe the gentleman is supposed to toss pebbles at the lady’s window?” Gilbert asked, mock-serious.

“Feel free,” Anne replied breezily. “I’ll happily join you anytime.” She summitted the porch and opened the door and called, “Marilla! Matthew! I’ve brought a guest!” She turned back to Gilbert. “Ready?”

“Never and always,” he replied, and followed Anne inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No more chapters after this, folks. This is well and truly done.
> 
> But God, was it fun while it lasted! Thanks to annesblythc and ValancyStirling for requesting more!


End file.
